“REVERSE Robin Hood” Chancellor George Osborne claimed yesterday that deep cuts hitting Britain’s poorest are merely a scratch in public spending.

Mr Osborne braced Britain for more bad news in Wednesday’s Budget in an appearance on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, claiming: “We need to act now so we don’t pay later.”

He said cuts equivalent to 50p in every £100 spent by the government were needed and claimed it was “not a huge amount in the scheme of things.”